We gather together around the dinner table today being doubly blessed and truly grateful We realize we live in a world filled with strife and despair but also, beauty and joy We are therefore glad that you are ever present and ever in our midst We are glad you are a God who really cares for us and desires the very best for us We thank you for our home, America, the land of promise with freedoms and liberties for all our citizens We thank you for all those who willing volunteer to defend our shores and fight against our foes We thank you for our families and pray for their well being Draw us closer to one another in the coming year We pray and give thanks for all your blessings and care May we a blessing to many others in the coming year We offer this prayer in the name of our healer and helper, Even Jesus Christ, Amen

In the hollow of his hand Is the place where I shall stand Counting the stars one by one Standing in the middle of the sun Watching angels quietly flying by Causing rainbows in the sky, oh my As my Savior reigns on high What a fortunate fellow am I O, what a fortunate fellow am I

"Love," wrote Katherine Anne Porter, must be learned, and learned again and again; there is no end to it. Hate needs no instruction, but waits only to be provoked."

Who among us has learned all there is to learn about love? Love is like a continually rotating, smoothly polished diamond with an infinite number of sides and facets. And, each day we see more and more ways in which love may be extended, expanded and bestowed.

Just as we hope we have mastered one small facet of love, numerous more sides appear and we learn...that we have, oh so much more to learn...about love and loving.

We are presently learning that it is necessary to receive love from a God of love before we may attempt to pass His love along to those around us.

We are learning that economic or social status may or may not have a great deal to do with the amount of love we receive from or give to others.

However, this we know, the facets go on and on. And, we shall never see their end.

For [the Lord] saith by the strength of my hand I have done it and by my wisdom for I am prudent

And I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures And I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man

Shall the axe boast of itself against him that heweth therewith Or, shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it As if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up Or as if the staff should lift itself up, as if it were no wood And it shall come to pass in that day that his burden shall be taken away from all thy shoulder and his yoke from off thy neck and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing